Woodbury star football player Averett's dream beginning to come true

Woodbury's Anthony Averett runs the ball during a game in the fall of 2010. (File photo)

Anthony Averett always wanted to be like the guys he saw on TV since he was a child, the football players starring for big-time college programs and then moving from Saturdays to Sundays as professionals.

All the anticipation in the world couldn’t prepare him for the reality he’s now experiencing as his dream starts to come true. The good news is that it hasn’t changed Averett or the approach that got the Woodbury High School junior into the position of having 13 Division I scholarship offers with the possibility of plenty more before he has to choose between them all.

“I always see people on TV, and wondered if it could be me one day,” Averett said Thursday, hours before leaving to attend the spring football game at the University of Alabama this weekend. “It’s an exciting moment for me and my family. I just dream about stuff like this, and it’s coming true a little bit.

“I’ve put tons of work in, I started lifting in eighth grade. Ever since then I’ve done the same thing, training. It’s worth it.”

Alabama is the biggest Averett suitor, winner of two of the last three national championships, but is far from the only one. The rest of the list is pretty impressive, too — Temple, Rutgers, Syracuse, West Virginia, East Carolina, South Florida, Wisconsin, Iowa, Tennessee, Penn State, Pitt and South Carolina.

The last half-dozen names on that list offered after the Crimson Tide took the plunge, but Thundering Herd head football coach Zack Valentine knows it’s more than just Alabama’s interest that turned them on to his top player.

“Anthony’s work ethic in the offseason,” said Valentine of Averett’s edge. “He finds the time to do the small things that turn out to be big, before practice or after practice to maintain that edge. It’s within the kid, how competitive an athlete can be. If they have that burning competitiveness, they’ll find the time to become stronger in the things they need to do well.”

Averett could have gone the other way. He was a star in the midget system, setting a single-season touchdown record before he was through. He came into high school and immediately had a starting job for the Herd in the backfield and secondary, which some people apparently felt might have been handed to him.

But Valentine had put Averett through his own personal vetting process that assured him his young talent was ready for the varsity game.

“One of the things I tell my kids from the time they enter their freshman year, they can have tons of success in the midgets (but it doesn’t mean anything),” Valentine said. “Anthony is a prime example. When he started training in eighth grade he was stronger than the other kids. But he knew when he got to high school the learning process had to start over again. He knew there would be kids stronger, faster.

“He was humble. He started for me, and he deserved it. I knew how hard he worked, his football savvy. He only had three or four touchdowns, but he and his parents understood leaving from one league where he dominated to high school football. They had the patience, even though he wasn’t having the same success. He’s a special breed.”

“(My parents and coaches) were there to support me the whole time,” said Averett. “We knew I wouldn’t be scoring 40 touchdowns again. I just did my job. I’m a team player, as long as we’re winning it’s not a big deal. I can’t stay away from the weight room, I like it a lot.”

Averett was in the weight room at school this week, even as everyone else was out for spring break, and he attended track practice too. He won the Meet of Champions in the long jump last spring and captured the 55-meter dash title and set a personal record in the long jump at the Eastern States Indoor Championships in February.

There again his parents help him find a balance, as he credits his mom, a schoolteacher, with making sure he stays on top of his homework even with everything else going on. And it’s only going to get crazier from here, as coaches can start actively recruiting again in May.

But the process hasn’t affected Averett to this point, and it likely won’t. He’s planning on taking his official visits in the fall when he can — around Thundering Herd football — and instead of stressing out over the enormity of the situation, the small-town kid is going to live his dream and enjoy the ride.

“Some days are like that, busy work, and some days are more relaxed. It’s not all busy,” Averett said. “It seemed like everything happened real fast, right after my indoor track season everybody just offered. It seemed to come out of nowhere. I knew it was coming, but I didn’t know it was coming like this.

“I wanted this to happen. Then when it hit, boom. But I’m enjoying it.”